Young King

9

Kaiden's POV

I was left with an unsettling feeling that I was being watched. No matter what I did, it didn't leave. Nick had been gone for the
last couple of practices. I let coach know that he was dealing with a family emergency and would be back as soon as he could. I texted him a few times but didn't get a reply.

I was worried about him. The whole team was. Seeing the calm, cool, and collected Nick Molchat give his brother a mean right hook was a side we hadn't seen of him before.

I walk down the gym's stairs. Andrea was waiting at the edge of them like she always used to. It's been a month since we'd spoken to each other.

"Hey, scrub." She says slightly uncertain.

"Hey, shorty." I say back, coming to the last stair.

"Heard you had the cuffs put on you."

"Uh, that was like two weeks ago but yeah that happened."

She nods and looks down at her feet before her eyes meet mine. "I wanted to check up on you as soon as I heard. I just...didn't know if you wanted to hear from me."

"Would've been nice. We were friends before we dated."

"We were. And I'm sorry for how things went down. I missed you, I still do."

"Me too." I admited. Because honestly, I just wanted my friend back.

"Maybe...when you're ready we could go back to being friends." She says unsuredly.

I nod, "I'd like that."

I hold out my hand for her to take. She does and I shake it in mock formality. "Friends for life."

"Friends for life." She repeats and I smile.

We end up in a diner that has the best fried chicken around. But the best part was the secret sauce Mr. Dinah made himself. It looked like a shack from the outside. It's only customers being regular and word of mouth. But every Sunday, after church, this place had a line going out the door and around the block. Luckily, today was a Monday.

We sit at on one of the bright red booths with our plastic trays in front of us. I don't waste a second digging in to my friend and milkshake.

"I can see your table manners haven't improved." Andrea jokes.

I look up with her, sticking half a fry in my mouth with pink milkshake running down my chin. "I don't what you mean."

She laughs and shakes her head, grabbing a perfectly crusted chicken leg and taking a juicy bite. I do the same, giving it a generous dip of secret sauce.

I nearly moan at the taste, my eyes rolling back just a little.

"See, you were never into me as much as that chicken." Andrea said jokingly. I knew it wasn't meant as a jab but it did hurt to hear that.

I realized, fairly recently, that she was right. Our romantic relationship was basically friends who made out. I racked my brain for weeks, trying to figure out if I had ever really been attracted to her physically. Honestly I hadn't come to a decision until the day Nick's brother walked into the gym. I felt more for that stranger in the two minutes we stared at each other than I ever had for Andrea, physically speaking. And seeing her now only confirmed that.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She said, her smile faltering.

I set down my drink and wiped my face. "I didn't know." I started.

"Didn't know what?"

"That I didn't love you like I should've. Not until recently. If I had known, I wouldn't have strung you along like that."

She shook her head at me, her hand reaching across the table to hold mine. "We both decided to start dating. And I don't regret my time with you. I didn't say this before but you're were a perfect boyfriend. You had your flaws, but you were always there when I needed it. You supported me and made sure I was safe. You walked me home when it practice ran late. I couldn't ask for a better first. So I don't want you to feel like you were a bad guy for not falling in love. It's not your fault, or mine. I think we were good to each other while we figured out our feelings and that's all we could've done. And now we're working it out, like we always do. Friends for life, scrub."

I nod, a lopsided smile on my face. "Friends for life, shorty."

When we finished eating it was dark outside, so I walked her home before going home myself. I feel lighter than I'd felt in a long time.